Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the din in the CPI-M over SNC-Lavalin corruption case in which CBI has sought to arraign party state Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan as an accused, a new controversy has broken out over the sanction of a research grant to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan's daughter.
The move of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) to sanction a Rs 35 lakh
research grant to the Chief Minister's daughter, V V Asha, a scientist with Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnolgy, has run
into controversy with media reports stating that awarding of the academic project involved irregularities and nepotism.
Reports in local media said the fund had been approved by the Kerala Biotechnology Mission, a wing of KSCSTE, headed by
Achuthanandan in his capacity as Chief Minister. The project was not properly evaluated and the fund was approved to Asha
only to please Achuthanandan, the reports said.
Meanwhile, Asha rejected the charge that the grant involved any sort of irregularity since she was only a co-investigator in the project on Marine Bio-Technology which has three other scientists as the team members.
'The grant is not meant for any individual. I am only part of it. I S Bright Singh, who heads the Marine Bio-Technology department in Cochin University is its head,' Asha told PTI, adding that no amount had been sanctioned and the institute
had not received any papers in this regard.
Stating that she had a 15 years' research experience, Asha said she would be doing only a part of the research programme. 'The controversy has been raked up just because I happen to be the daughter of the Chief Minister,' she added.
The fresh controversy followed last week's move by CBI to seek court's permission to arraign Vijayan, a former minister,
as an accused in the Lavalin corruption case. PTI
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